Shooting threat raises alert at Colony High School

PALMER — Alaska State Troopers are investigating messages threatening a school shooting scrawled on restroom walls at Colony High School. Two messages were found in bathroom stalls Oct. 18, the school reports in a letter sent home to parents.

School officials would not release the exact wording of the threats.

One included threats of a possible shooting happening during school Oct. 24, 25 or 26. The other was a “general threat of harm,” and mentions the possibility of violence at the school, said George Troxel, Mat-Su Borough School District superintendent. The messages were found on walls in two men’s restrooms at the high school. School was not canceled as a result of the messages and school officials followed district procedures to ensure the safety of students and faculty.

“Troopers were called and they are keeping a close watch on the school,” Troxel said.

No incidents happened Wednesday, the first day indicated in the threatening graffiti, and yesterday and today are scheduled district work days and there are no classes scheduled, Troxel said.

Janet Lestenkof is a parent of a Colony High School student who said she was disappointed by the lack of information in the letter school officials provided about the incident.

“They made it sound like no big deal,” Lestenkof said.

Lestenkof also said there was confusion among parents as to whether the school was actually open. While some school officials told parents school was closed, others said school was open. Despite the confusion, Lestenkof decided on her own.

“The day the troopers have to come to school to make my kid feel safe is the day my kid’s going to stay home,” she said.

Lestenkof’s son Anthony, 16, said he wasn’t worried about a threat written on a bathroom wall at first, but his view soon changed.

“When I found out more I started to think more of it, like do I really want to go back to school? Can it happen again? Do I feel safe there?” he said.

Although troopers were posted at the school Wednesday, Anthony and his mother said it wasn’t enough to make them feel comfortable.

Faculty and staff are taking precautions to limit the chances of an incident happening at the school and do not take any threat, no matter how unlikely, for granted, Troxel said. Schedules and hall passes are being reviewed to make sure people are where they are supposed to be at any given time. Also, teachers, faculty and students are being asked if they have witnessed any abnormal behavior that might be related to the threats.

Megan Peters, public information officer for Alaska State Troopers, said troopers will remain at the school as long as needed. They are also investigating to try and learn who wrote the threats.

“We are looking into it and taking it very seriously,” Peters said. “We haven’t found anything that substantiates the threat.”

About two weeks ago the school held an assembly that featured Rachel’s Challenge, a program inspired by the diaries and life of Rachel Scott, a victim of the 1999 Columbine High School shooting, Troxel said. The assembly and talk about Columbine may have led someone to write a similar threat in bathroom stalls at Colony. Whether the threat was real or not, whoever wrote it likely faces scholastic and criminal punishment if caught.

“I take it all very seriously,” Troxel said. “In my opinion there is no joking about something like this.”

The Mat-Su School Borough School District is offering a $500 reward for information that leads to the individual responsible for the comments. Mat-Su Crime Stoppers, 745-3333, is offering an additional $1,000 reward.

Contact Chris Gillow at chris.gillow@frontiersman.com or 352-2284.